HP C7401A - SureStore Ultrium 230 Tape Drive, Getting Started Manual

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to keep the tape drive working at optimum performance.
• Tape media type
The data cartridge should match the specification of the tape drive. A lower specification
will have a lower transfer speed (see “Data cartridges” on page 27). Use Ultrium 800 GB
or Ultrium 800 GB WORM cartridges with Ultrium 960 tape drives, Ultrium 400 GB
cartridges with Ultrium 460 tape drives and Ultrium 200 GB cartridges with Ultrium 230
tape drives.
• Data and file types
The type of data being backed up or restored can affect performance. Typically, small files
incur greater overhead in processing and access than large files. Equally, data that is not
compressible will always limit the speed at which the drive can write/read data. You will
achieve no more than native rates with uncompressible data.
Examples of files that compress well are plain text files, spreadsheets; those that compress
poorly are those that are either compressed as part of their format (such as, JPEG
photographic files) or stored as compressed (such as, .ZIP files or .gz/.Z files on Unix
platforms).
ult960_master_internal.fm Page 36 Tuesday, September 21, 2004 4:13 PM